Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has three Cancer Center Programs that focus on various aspects of understanding cancer. The Cancer Genetics Program (GR), headed by Dr. Gregory Hannon, focuses on approaches to understanding tumor development, progression and therapy response, using sophisticated tools for genome analysis, innovative animal models and genomics, and computational methods. The Gene Regulation and Cell Proliferation Program (GR), led by Dr. David Spector, has three main focus areas - DNA replication, epigenetics and RNA biology - with a central aim of understanding the regulation of gene expression and aim of understanding the regulation of gene expression and cell proliferation in both normal and cancer cells using various experimental systems as well as structural biology. Members of the Signal Transduction Program (ST), led by Dr. Nicholas Tonks, define the mechanisms by which critical signaling pathways are perturbed in cancer and influence essential functions of cancer cells. The program leaders play an important role in promoting the success of their program by setting its overall direction, allocating resources within the program, as well as through their active involvement in faculty recruitment. They also integrate Individual scientific needs of members within the program through the improvement and development of scientific shared resources. Each program leader facilitates interactions between program members through both formal and informal meetings with individual investigators or groups of investigators. The progress in all three programs has been outstanding and has profoundly advanced our understanding of cancer. The success results in large part from the interactive environment promoted by the Cancer Center.